Search Worlds Without End

Pel Brown has troubles in his basement. But it's not water leaking in -- it's magic. Sword-carrying barbarians are spilling through, demanding that Pel help them defeat Shadow, a dark force taking over their world. Meanwhile, on the other side of town, a spaceship has crashed in Amy Jewell's backyard, and the aliens want Amy's help against the Shadow seeking to conquer their world. When Pel and Amy go through the basement portal into the world of magic, the Shadow attacks and traps them inside. Now Pel and Amy find themselves entangled in escapades that will make them into heroes... or corpses.

A handful of ordinary Americans -- housewives, lawyers, interior decorators, and the like -- found themselves caught up in a transdimensional conflict, and transported from their homes to realms where magic worked, to desert planets and rebel worlds, to places straight out of science fiction and fantasy. But these were not the harmless, happy-ending lands of film and fable. The sweat and blood was real, and the horrors they faced genuinely dangerous. One world was a world of magic, ruled by a dark force called Shadow. A handful of would-be heroes resisted Shadow's dominion, and sought assistance in their desperate struggle to free their homeland. The other reality was a universe of spaceships and rayguns, dominated by a Galactic Empire that saw Shadow as a threat -- and that demanded the exiles from our world aid them in their campaign. Against their will, these few people were flung into battle... IN THE EMPIRE OF SHADOW

THE POWER OVER LIFE AND DEATH

They called him Pelbrun the Brown Magician. He'd been plain old marketing consultant Pel Brown until the day a mystic doorway had appeared in his basement. That improbable portal had led him and his family to the magic land of Faerie; another had opened the way to the super-science universe of the Galactic Empire.

But this was no fairy tale...

At first Pel had sought the key that would take them safely home. But before he could wrest the matrix of magic away from the despot Shadow, Pel's wife and daughter were brutally murdered. Neither absolute control over the matrix nor rulership of Faerie could ease the pain in Pels heart--until he realized that the matrix held power over life and death!

So this once-ordinary man set out to overturn the irrefutable laws of mortality. But even his newfound omnipotence couldn't protect him from the pitfalls that lay ahead, as both the Empire and Earth's military sought to exploit his incredible power. Then the Empire invaded Faerie--forcing Pel to fight in order to keep his dreams alive...